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Former Ringling Board Member Peter A. Vogt Remembered

10/09/13

Peter A. Vogt who served on The Ringling Board of Directors from 2000-2010 died recently in Orchard Park, N.Y. He was 87.

Vogt generously donated to the arts, and one of his gifts was instrumental to bringing artist James Turrell’s “Joseph’s Coat” Skyspace to The Ringling. Vogt was honored as a major donor to the piece on Dec. 22, 2011.

“(Joseph’s Coat) is a gift to future generations,” Vogt said at the skyspace’s unveiling event. “It will establish The Ringling yet again as a Museum that is reaching into the modern era while maintaining the elegance of the past, with its collection of the masters.”

Vogt’s other service to the arts include a term as the chairman of the Burchfield-Penny Art Center on the campus of the State University of New York-Buffalo State and as the board member and museum committee chairman at the Venice Art Center in Venice, Fla. Vogt also acquired an extensive collection of regional American art.

Vogt worked at the Greater Buffalo Press for 35 years. He retired as the vice president of sales and marketing in 1989 and established a home in Venice.

Vogt graduated from Dartmouth College where he also played varsity football. He trained to become a Navy officer during World War II, and he re-enlisted in the Navy and served on a minesweeper during the Korean War.

Vogt married May Lou Koessler in 1954. They had four children. Mary Lou Vogt died in 2002. Vogt remarried in 2003 to Pamela Ryan Jacobs. She survived him as do his four children, five stepchildren and many grandchildren.